By ThreatListPro Security Team · Published February 27, 2026 · Last verified: February 28, 2026
ThreatListPro is a curated VPN brute force blocklist ($9.99/month) that focuses exclusively on IPs attacking VPN portals. FireHOL is a free, open-source aggregation engine that combines 350+ upstream threat feeds into composite blocklists. ThreatListPro delivers a ready-to-use External Dynamic List (EDL) URL; FireHOL requires self-hosting, scripting, and ongoing maintenance. This comparison helps network administrators choose the right approach for their firewall and budget.
Both ThreatListPro and FireHOL provide IP addresses you can load into your firewall to block malicious traffic. But they approach the problem from opposite directions. ThreatListPro is a narrowly focused, manually curated blocklist built from VPN honeypot data. FireHOL is an automated aggregation engine that pulls from hundreds of upstream threat feeds. Understanding this fundamental difference is the key to choosing the right tool.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | ThreatListPro | FireHOL |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | VPN brute force specific | 350+ generic lists aggregated |
| Curation | Manually curated from VPN honeypots | Automated aggregation |
| Update Frequency | Weekly | Daily (but many stale entries) |
| False Positive Rate | Very low (targeted) | Higher (broad lists) |
| Firewall Integration | EDL-ready URL, 5-min setup | Manual download + parsing |
| Support | Email support, setup guides | Community only (GitHub) |
| Pricing | $9.99/mo | Free |
| Best For | MSPs/orgs with VPN portals | Research / hobbyist use |
When to Choose ThreatListPro
ThreatListPro is built for a specific job: stopping VPN brute force attacks on your firewall. If any of the following describe your situation, it is the better choice.
- Your primary threat is VPN brute force. You are seeing thousands of failed login attempts against GlobalProtect, SSL-VPN, AnyConnect, or another VPN portal. You need a list that targets exactly this attack vector, not a broad collection of spam and malware IPs.
- You cannot afford false positives. FireHOL's aggregated lists contain millions of IPs, including addresses belonging to CDNs, cloud providers, and shared hosting. Blocking these risks disrupting legitimate business traffic. ThreatListPro's ~1,600 curated entries have each been verified as active VPN attackers.
- You need plug-and-play EDL support. You want to paste a URL into your firewall's External Dynamic List configuration and be done. No scripting, no cron jobs, no format conversion. ThreatListPro serves a plain-text IP list at a stable URL that every major firewall can consume natively.
- You manage multiple client firewalls. MSPs and MSSPs need a consistent, reliable feed they can deploy across dozens of customer environments. A $9.99/month service with support and an SLA is operationally simpler than managing free community tools at scale.
- You need vendor support. When something is not working, you need someone to email. FireHOL issues go to a GitHub repository. ThreatListPro has a support team.
When FireHOL Might Be Enough
FireHOL is a well-maintained, transparent, and genuinely useful open-source project. It is the right choice in certain scenarios.
- You are doing security research. If you need broad threat intelligence data for analysis, correlation, or academic work, FireHOL's aggregation of 350+ upstream feeds is invaluable. It was designed as a research tool first.
- You have an in-house SOC. If your security operations team has analysts who can evaluate, filter, and manage large IP lists, they can extract real value from FireHOL's data. They know how to handle false positives and stale entries.
- You need broad coverage beyond VPN. FireHOL covers spam, malware C2, scanning, DDoS sources, and many other threat categories. If your goal is general-purpose IP reputation rather than VPN-specific blocking, it offers wider coverage.
- Budget is truly zero. If you have no budget at all for security tooling, FireHOL is free and functional. A free list is better than no list.
The Real Cost of "Free"
FireHOL costs nothing to download. But deploying it as a production blocklist on your firewall is not free in practice. Here is what the hidden cost looks like:
Time spent on initial setup
FireHOL publishes lists in various formats. You need to select the right tier (Level 1 through Level 4), download the file, parse it into a format your firewall accepts, and upload or host it at a URL your firewall can fetch. For a Palo Alto EDL, this means standing up a web server to host the parsed file. Estimated time: 2-4 hours for initial setup.
Ongoing maintenance
You need a scheduled job to re-download and re-parse the list. When the upstream format changes, your script breaks. When the GitHub repository moves or restructures, your script breaks. When your hosting server goes down, your firewall fetches an empty list and stops blocking. Estimated time: 1-2 hours per month troubleshooting and maintaining.
False positive investigation
When a user reports they cannot reach a business-critical service, you need to check whether the destination IP was blocked by your FireHOL list. With millions of entries, tracking down false positives is time-consuming. Estimated time: 30-60 minutes per incident.
EDL URL: https://api.threatlistpro.com/v1/blocklist?key=YOUR_KEY
# FireHOL: download, parse, host, schedule, maintain
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firehol/blocklist-ipsets/master/firehol_level1.netset
$ grep -v '^#' firehol_level1.netset | grep -v '^$' > parsed_list.txt
$ scp parsed_list.txt webserver:/var/www/html/edl/
$ crontab -e # add daily job to repeat the above
Frequently Asked Questions
Is FireHOL a good replacement for ThreatListPro?
They serve different purposes. FireHOL aggregates 350+ generic threat lists covering spam, malware, and scanning. ThreatListPro is curated specifically for VPN brute force attackers sourced from honeypots mimicking GlobalProtect, SSL-VPN, and AnyConnect portals. If your primary concern is VPN brute force protection with low false positives and zero maintenance, ThreatListPro is the better fit.
Can I use FireHOL and ThreatListPro together?
Yes. Most firewalls support multiple External Dynamic Lists. You could use ThreatListPro for targeted VPN brute force protection and a FireHOL list for broader threat coverage. Be mindful of your firewall's total EDL entry limit and watch for overlapping entries that waste capacity.
Why does ThreatListPro cost money when FireHOL is free?
ThreatListPro charges $9.99/month because it provides manual curation, false positive removal, EDL-ready formatting, email support, and an uptime SLA. The real cost comparison should include the admin time spent parsing, formatting, and troubleshooting free lists versus a plug-and-play service that takes 5 minutes to deploy.